Atkins Library receives Mellon grant for eBook research

Atkins Library
Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Through a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the UNC Charlotte J. Murrey Atkins Library will investigate how best to license and acquire electronic resources for academic libraries. The $271,000 award is a two-year research and planning grant to produce recommendations for the licensing and acquisition of electronic resources, particularly eBooks. 

“Academic institutions are moving rapidly from print to electronic books,” said Joan Lorden, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at UNC Charlotte. “UNC Charlotte, with the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, will explore the impact this shift has on the long-term survival, use and licensing of eBooks.”

The UNC Charlotte-based project team will convene a working group to discuss, define and investigate the impact on academic institutions of three principles for eBook licenses:

1. Unlimited simultaneous users

2. No Digital Rights Management (DRM) either contractual or technological

3. Irrevocable perpetual access and archival rights

The working group will be comprised of participants who represent library consortia, publishers, content aggregators and academic libraries and will join the UNC Charlotte team to examine these principles throughout the two-year term of the grant.

Three research teams will be formed to share their perspectives on the three principles and work together to identify essential characteristics and implications for their institutions. The groups will explore and discuss licensing terms, user experience and the impact of DRM and classroom and instruction use.  In addition, a consultant to the project team will prepare an environmental scan of the eBook market and support its work. 

In spring 2017, the grant will conclude with a free conference in Charlotte to share the findings of the working group and research teams and invite further discussion. Final versions of white papers or similar products and the environmental scan will be released at this time.